1. Introduction to Virology
Masheal Aljumaah OCT 2018

2. What is a virus? “
Viruses are very different from the other microbial groups. They are so small (filterable) that most can be seen only with an electron microscope, and they are acellular (not cellular).
Viruses can reproduce only by using the cellular machinery of other organisms (obligatory intracellular parasites) 2

3. Virus Host Range
The host range of a virus is the cells the virus can infect.
spectrum of host
Viruses are able to infect specific types of cells of only one host species. (host-specific)
In rare cases, viruses cross the host-species barrier, thus
expanding their host range.

4. (Virology Principles & Applications Book, p1)

5. 3 13

6. Structure of Virus

7. Bacteriophage Structure

8. Virus Genomes
In contrast to prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, in which DNA is always the primary genetic material (and RNA plays an auxiliary role), a virus can have either DNA or RNA but never
both.
The nucleic acid of a virus can be
single-stranded
double-stranded.

9. Virus Nucleic acid

10. General Morphology (basis of their capsid architecture.)
▷ Helical Viruses:
▷ Complex Viruses:
example :bacteriophage.
▷ Polyhedral Viruses:
▷ Example: Ebola viruses
▷ Example: poliovirus.

11. How do we Detect and Measure Viruses?
(Isolation, Cultivation, and Identification of Viruses) 11

13. They can not be cultivated on artificial culture media.29

14. (1) Growing Bacteriophages
Methods for growing viruses in the laboratory
(1) Growing Bacteriophages
solid media
plaque method
(detect and count viruses)
liquid media
(2) Growing Animal Viruses
Living Animals
Embryonated
Eggs
Cell Cultures
(3) Growing plant Viruses 32

15. “
▷ However, viruses that use bacterial cells as a host (bacteriophages) are rather easily grown on bacterial cultures. 15

16. (1) Growing Bacteriophages in the Laboratory
The Number of Plaques =
Plaque- forming Units (PFU).
Figure 4. plaque method. 33

17. (2)Growing Animal Viruses
A- In Living Animals
▷ Some animal viruses can be cultured only in living animals, such as mice, rabbits, and guinea pigs.
▷ Most experiments to study the immune system’s response to viral infections .
▷ Animal inoculation may be used as
a diagnostic procedure for identifying and isolating a virus from a clinical specimen.

18. (2)Growing Animal Viruses
B- In Embryonated Eggs: 5.

19. (2)Growing Animal Viruses
B- In Embryonated Eggs:
Viral growth is signalled by:
the death of the embryo.
embryo cell damage.
by the formation of typical pocks or lesions on the egg membranes. 5.

20. (2)Growing Animal Viruses
C - In Cell Cultures:
Cell cultures have replaced embryonated eggs as the preferred type of growth medium
for many viruses. Cell cultures consist of cells grown in culture media in the laboratory.

21. (2)Growing Animal Viruses
C - In Cell Cultures:
Cell culture lines are started by treating a slice of animal tissue with enzymes that
separate the individual cells (Figure5). These cells are suspended in a solution that provides the osmotic pressure, nutrients, and growth factors needed for the cells to grow.

23. 4 3

24. (3) Growing plant Viruses in the Laboratory

25. (3) Growing plant Viruses in the Laboratory

26. Figure 2. Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV)